Community Digest

Long Beach

The fate of the 59-year-old Pacific Coast Club, a vacant beachfront castle where the city's elite once gathered, remained uncertain this week.

A creditor took possession of the club and its 1.55-acre site at 850 E. Ocean Blvd. on Friday after a federal bankruptcy judge and a group of Boston investors, who had offered $3.75 million for the property, were unable to reach agreement.

The Boston investors said they had intended to restore the club, which is a designated city landmark and on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Bellevue Corp. of Burlingame took the club in lieu of about $2.5 million owed it by owner Josef Janota, whose property had been protected from creditors for two years by bankruptcy court. Bellevue has also paid off a $450,000 loan to Janota by Great Western Savings and Loan Assn., said Thomas Kelley, attorney for Bellevue.

Kelley said Bellevue, a mortgage-lending firm, is trying to sell the club and recover its investment. It had received no offers by Wednesday, he said.